DH Noodles & Grill 敦煌兰州牛肉拉面 — Restaurant in San Jose

This restaurant featuring northwesten Chinese food just opened another location in San Jose. We decided to give a try there during their soft opening. As soon as we sat down, the friendly waiter offered us a warm sweet tea made from jujube dates and some pork buns in a small bamboo steamer, all complimentary. The buns were surprisingly juicy and tasty. We ordered the big plate chicken and the beef hand-pulled noodle soup. The chicken stew came with potatoes, onions , bell peppers and cilantro, and ribbon flat noodles hidden at the bottom of the big dish that soaked up the sauce. The chicken pieces had bones. Eating them together with the potatoes and noodles felt like a burst of flavors in your mouth. The seasoning was a fusion between the Urghur and traditional Chinese bold spices and sauces. We only wished it had more potatoes and had to order extra noodles. At the end we boxed the leftovers home and I added more potatoes to the stew and it was a great dinner dish the next day. The beef noodle soup had a very thick flavorful broth - the restaurant claimed that they made this broth in house and the broth had been simmered with bones and spices for hours. We also tried the fermented rice milk and egg dessert and it was served hot, quiet good, not too sweet. We had not had anything quite like that before. Our waiter was very attentive and accommodating. Overall we liked this new restaurant and will come back for the big plate chicken and perhaps try some other dishes...

It's interesting that restaurant at this location kept on changing but they have almost always been Chinese noodle places. The latest reincarnation is a Chinese Northwestern style noodle place. I don't know whether this place is rated kosher or halal but traditonally this style of restaurants are operated by Chinese Muslims but I can't vouch for this particular restaurant. I like the noodle and lamb kebabs here. The noodles are pulled noodles (lamian) and technically that's that the ra in ramen (done by Chinese immigrants to Japan) came from. I like that they serve them with spice by default. I dislike other places that you have to tell them to add spiciness because it's akin to ordering a cheeseburger and has to tell them to add cheese. The place is smaller than it looks from outdoor mostly due to the irregular floorplan but I wouldn't say it's super crowded. You'll probably have more trouble finding parking because it's right next to hmart and the parking spots are notoriously small. There are a lot of choices for noodle thickness and I can vouch for normal. The super skinny ones are not as chewy. This is a noodle place make sure you order noodles. The lamb kebabs is also good as I mentioned but I wish it's fattier. I'll come try the chicken next time. You order through the phone so you don't have to...

Saw this place was in soft opening while passing by and decided to come back and try it. Glad I did because it was really good! The lanzhou beef noodles hit the spot. The soup was nicely balanced and the noodle texture was nice and chewy. I would get the signature which has chili oil because I think it tastes better. If you got the original, they also have chili oil at the table you could add. We got a few side dishes too - I would get the pepper beef (spicy) and the eggplant salad again, but we also liked the crispy lamb chop (spicy). The scallion pancake with sliced beef was decent too but has a sweet sauce in it and doesn't have a lot of filling, so I'm not sure I would get it again. We also tried their xiaolongbao which was more of a cross between xiaolongbao and baozi and it was good as well. Overall really good experience, and I'm looking forward to going back and trying some other things...